Fit - Bit by Bit

Yearning for Spring!

I am always looking for motivation to keep heading off into this new land - more like a new galaxy to me, really!  A land where people like to walk and bike and kayak and skate.  Where they stop and share a low fat latte or healthy, REAL yoghurt and re-hash their most recent hike or bike trip!

I am not above looking to gadgets if I think they will provide this motivation, and, the Fitbit One is amazing!  I had many questions about the fitbit.  I heard about it from my weight watcher buddies online and so many were so excited about this little miniature trainer I finally caved and checked it out.  With winter slowing me down on my usual walking pattern I researched, read, re-read, and finally, with trepidation (I am so super cautious about "trendy" devices!), I hit the button to order.  Having followed the wave of excitement over this little technology wizard on WW's, I knew that interest ebbed and flowed - would my interest hold? or was I wasting my money on a temporary toy?
The little box was delivered within 4 days (just before Christmas) and I opened it with excitement!  It was SO small - not much bigger than my little finger, really.  I got started immediately.  Now, for those of you who don't know me,  I am a little OCD and this type of gadget suits me well. I bought it for about $100 online (although they have a cheaper model that works well but tracks less information). This gadget clips on to my bra easily and almost invisibly, provides a sum of all steps over the 24 hours of one day and the online dashboard automatically syncs when I am within 20 feet of my laptap.  The program (at my request) also sends me an email of my weekly progress although I can go online and view it weekly, monthly and even yearly!

Plus I get badges for meeting certain levels of fitness measured in steps and emails congratulating me when I reach major milestones like walking my first 50 kilometres.  I have loved gold stars and badges since I was little - must be that inner child in me trying to get out again!  You can also customize other types of goals and do much, much more but since I am on WW I don't count calories consumed/burned etc.  There is some science out there that suggests you need to walk 10,000 steps a day to be considered healthily active so that was my goal and I was surprised to make it happen so soon as I started out at less than 5000 on Dec. 23/12.

Right now I find it is a great motivator and it is even programmed to send me encouraging messages on the digital read out.  ROCK ON, Eileen and GET GOING are just two!  I know that you can also get a pedometer app for your I-Phone etc.that also works well but I don't have an I-Phone (I don't even have a Smart phone, sigh) so this was a good answer for me.

Recently we have formed a Walking Club at work for fun and are currently competing with other teams to get to progressive destinations FIRST! All of our steps are entered and calculated each week.  The FitBit makes it so easy to track these steps and distances and my team is proudly leaving Saskatoon AND Flin Flon behind and on their way to Churchhill - on the look out for polar bears!  Stay tuned for the pictures! 

I have also used it to track my sleeping patterns.  Sleep has been a challenge for me for years.  I have made changes (like the dreaded CPAP machine!) but could never tell (once the BIG difference was experienced) if I was getting what I need or was my sleepiness coming from other sources?  So, with FitBit, I can wear it to bed in a special wrist sleeve (which I never feel once asleep) and it tells me in the morning how long it took for me to fall asleep, how often I woke up and how many hours I actually slept - awesome feedback for someone having trouble with their sleep quality.  I can monitor things like my eating habits at night to identify patterns that affect my sleep quality - like, watching Criminal Minds just before bed or playing Jewells on my new tablet increase my wakefulness!  So cool (even if it is common sense etc.) having a gadget prove it to my cynical mind - makes the difference between squeezing in those last 500 steps or not!

At any rate, I would recommend this gadget if you are into numbers and want to keep your focus off your scale and food. Walking has changed my fitness level dramatically since the 100 Day Walking Challenge I started last fall (almost 40 lbs ago!) and this is one way I can keep the momentum going. Oh, did I say it even tells me how many flights of stairs I climbed and graphs my activity levels. Yep, OCD all the way!

I have become an affiliate because I really believe in this product - others are out there - but, I sure didn't want to keep this a secret!  Why would I hide something that is so much fun?